| Notes |
- Peter McLaren, born in Breadalbane, Perthshire, Scotland circa 1779. He married Janet Headrick on February 25, 1803. A weaver in Scotland, he emigrated in 1820 with his wife and seven children (ranging in age from 16 year old Isabella to one year old Christina) to settle as a farmer in Lanark Village, Ontario, Canada. The story of their family can be found here: http://david.mclaren.name.
Peter McLaren was born about 1779 in Breadalbane, Scotland, an area of Perthshire at the base of the Highlands and about thirty miles Northwest of Perth. In the previous century the McLaren clan had been on the wrong side of too many battles and had lost all their lands. Since land was wealth and status, the McLarens became tenants and tradesmen. Peter became a weaver.
Reasons for the Voyage
In 1820 Scotland the weavers were battered by the perfect storm:
The First Industrial Revolution had forced their transition from cottage industries (working at home) to factories in Glasgow and Paisley. Peter and his family were living in Glasgow, where the factories had initially done well supplying material for the military during the Napoleonic Wars.
The Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815, as did the War of 1812 with the United States, and Europe soon plunged into an economic depression. Factory wages fell, if jobs were even available, and starvation was not uncommon.
Moving families from Scotland to Canada would solve several problems:
The War of 1812 made it clear that Britain's former colonies had designs on Canadian land. Maintaining a military presence along the Canadian border wasn't practical. If the government gave British citizens land in Canada, the new arrivals would occupy and defend the territory.
Give a starving tradesman the opportunity to own land, help him learn to farm that land to support his family, and he can be convinced to leave his homeland.
Boarding steamships
The departure of poor families would ease the strain on the British economy and open jobs for military personnel returning from the wars.
So the voyage would help the families, the government and the economy; and I'm sure it seemed like a good idea till they got on the boat.
Sailing to Quebec
Sailing Ship
In 1820 and 1821 more than 3,000 emigrants boarded ships for this journey. Though the accommodations varied slightly, none of this was Carnival Cruise. Here is a description, published in 1826, of the 1821 voyage of the David of London. [This is a link to another website - use your "back" button to return.] The passengers from the David of London rendezvoused with passengers from the Earl of Buckinghamshire to complete the trip to Lanark - and those passengers included Peter's brother John McLaren, his wife Margaret (Stirling), and their four children.
Keep in mind that Peter McLaren was forty one years old at the start of his voyage, and his wife, Janet (Headrick) was forty two; their children, four girls and three boys, ranged in age from ten months (youngest daughter, Christina) to fifteen years (eldest daughter, Isabella). Brother John was forty six during his voyage, his wife, Margaret Stirling was forty one; their children, three boys and a girl, ranged in age from two (son Peter) to twenty one (oldest son Findlay). Now look at another description of life aboard one of these ships: An 1828 Voyage [This is a link to another website - use your "back" button to return.] and consider what this must have been like
A McLaren Migration
Lanark, Ontario, Canada
In September of 1820, Peter McLaren and his family were among the original settlers of Lanark. Named for the county in Scotland from which many of the emigrants came, the "settlement" consisted of a sign on a tree that read "This is Lanark." There were probably a few well chosen words as they entered The First Year.
The first group of settlers was severely hampered by their September arrival, with winter fast approaching. There was no time to clear land for fall wheat and little time to erect shelter. They lived first in tents made of bark and branches, then in crude log shanties.
Land in the area had been surveyed prior to their arrival, and each male over twenty one years of age had been granted 100 acres. In addition, they were given tools, farm implements and seed. Now all they had to do was locate their granted property (in the middle of the forest) and get started. These were weavers, remember. To say this was all new to them has to be massive understatement.
Details of their experience, and most of the information I have gathered regarding the McLarens in Canada, can be found on the website of the Lanark County Genealogical Society.
Peter McLaren died in October of 1827, seven years after settling in Lanark. He was forty eight. The land passed to his wife, whose eldest daughter still at home, Margaret, was twenty and eldest son, John, was nineteen. It is impossible for me to believe that the trials of this first year didn't contribute to Peter's early passing.
In early August of 1821 Peter's older brother, John McLaren, arrived with his family in a second group of settlers and managed to secure an adjacent plot of land. This group had more time to prepare for winter, and had the council of the settlers already in place, but there was still the small matter of Clearing the Trees.
The original plan was for each settler to farm his parcel of land, but you can't farm a forest - so the first priority was clearing trees.
The trees presented a burden and a blessing:
A burden because you can't eat trees, you need clear land to farm.
A blessing because the growing season in Lanark limits farming to about half the year and the lumber would provide work and income for the other half, not to mention material for houses and roads. (Yes, roads, they laid a "plank road" from Lanark to Perth, twelve miles of a "smooth flooring of pine.")
Thus many of the McLarens became lumberjacks, at least for half the year. Some, whose land proved unsuitable for cultivation, would pursue timber-related professions. This was rugged work, outside in the Canadian winter. One of the best descriptions of conditions in the lumber camps, including mention of McLarens in the trade, is to be found in this article: Old District Lumber Days.
You will also find frequent mention of the lumberjack McLarens on the Lanark County Genealogy Society website.
Finally, the Canadian Museum of Civilization offers a description of the Timber Trade with pictures of their displays.
The land settled by Peter and John McLaren was just over a mile east of what would become Lanark Village (incorporated in 1862). This area was obviously suited for agriculture because, as their families grew, they expanded into a Family of Farms.
To appreciate the layout of the McLaren farms we need to understand how the land was surveyed. It took a while to piece this together; please be patient and just keep scrolling down the page.
Each "township," in this case Lanark Township, was divided into concessions, parallel strips of land 1.25 miles wide, usually running north and south, but variable with topography. Each concession strip is then partitioned by lot lines, one quarter mile apart. That makes each lot a rectangle, 1.25 miles deep and .25 miles wide. Each concession strip and each strip of lots was numbered, and those numbers would identify a particular lot. Since the area inside each rectangle is 200 acres, and each settler received 100 acres, each would get one half of a lot. Peter, for example, received the East half of Lot 2, Concession 4; John received the West half of Lot 1, Concession 4. Here's the map for McLaren Farms 1821. (see media)
By 1861 the children of Peter and John had inherited and/or acquired several farms in the immediate vicinity. Here is the map, with descriptions of the owners listed below:
McLaren Farms in 1861. (see media)
?WJohn, oldest son of the original Peter (did you read about the Scottish naming protocols?), inherited the East half of Lot 2, Con. 4 and has expanded the farm to include the West half of Lot 3, Con. 4.
?WBig Peter is the second son of the original Peter and purchased the East half of Lot 3, Con. 4.
?WMargaret is the second daughter of the original Peter. She married first cousin James, son of the original John (you might be interested in the "consanguinity" discussion, part of Vignettes). When husband James died in 1846, Margaret and her children assumed control of their farm, the East half of Lot 2, Con. 3. This lot is listed as "urban" in 1901; its western edge borders Lanark Village
?WDavid is the third son of the original Peter, a carpenter by trade, but also farms 50 acres in the East half of Lot 1, Con. 3. Also listed as "urban" in 1901.
?WLittle Peter, youngest son of the original John (more naming protocols), inherited the West half of Lot 1, Con.4 and added 50 acres from the East half of Lot 1, Con.3.
Census and agricultural records for this period give us a closer look at the McLaren farms:
?WIn 1851, original John and his wife, their son Little Peter with his wife and four children, a 37 year old widowed male farmer named Brown and an 18 year old female servant are all tending the farm from a one story log home.
?WIn 1861, John, son of original Peter, is farming with his wife and nine children, ranging in age from 4 to 21. One reason he can handle 200 acres.
?WIn 1871, Little Peter (a widower) is farming with his son John and John's wife and child, with his daughter Margaret and her child (Margaret is married to her cousin David - but at the moment, David is shown living with his father, Big Peter), and with his youngest children Duncan (19) and Mary (16). That's four adults, two teens, and two children in the same household.
?WBig farms don't necessarily mean big chunks of arable land. Land suitable for cultivation was generally located in floodplains, along rivers or adjacent to lakes. Thus, in 1851, John's 200 acres only show 80 under cultivation; 50 as pasture, 29 in crops and 1 as a garden. He had 2 cows, 4 calves, a horse, 2 pigs and 13 sheep. On his 150 acres, Little Peter has 20 acres of crops, 20 acres of pasture, and a quarter acre garden. He has 2 bulls, 4 cows, 4 calves, 2 horses, 13 sheep and 8 pigs.
Google Earth gives us an opportunity to see these farms outlined over current geography. The Concession lines became farm roads, and those roads still exist in Lanark. Here is a picture (with grateful thanks to Google) of Lanark today. (See media)
As the families grew, the opportunities for each child to establish a homestead diminished. The original Peter's son, John, had nine children. John's oldest son, Peter, married Elizabeth Walker in 1863, quickly sired three children, and apparently wanted a home of his own. It was Time To Move On.
Peter McLaren, the first child of John McLaren and Marion McIlquham, was born in 1839 on the farm settled by the original Peter. In 1861, age 22, he is the oldest of nine children helping his parents farm two hundred acres. He married in 1863 and by 1868 had three children of his own. The 1871 Census shows him farming in Lanark Township, but not on his father's farm and not on a farm he owns.
In 1871 Peter's father is widowed and farming with his sons James (28 years old and single), John (21), David (16), Walter (14) and daughters Margaret (23) and Marion (18); the two oldest daughters have married and gone. The father died in 1872 and second son James inherited the family farm.
By 1881 Peter has become a laborer and is living with his wife and children in Mill Point, Ontario (now Deseronto, on the N.E. shore of Lake Ontario, about 70 miles SSW of Lanark).
This period corresponds to what the folks in Lanark call "The Manitoba Migration." The population in Ontario was growing, much of the arable land had been claimed, and young people looking for opportunities were departing to Manitoba and the Dakota Territories in search of free land. This apparently included Peter. His brother James remained on the family farm, but John moved west and eventually became the police chief in Vancouver; David and Walter both went to Manitoba.
In March of 1884 Peter emigrated from Canada and headed for the Dakota Territories.
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1779 - 1827 (48 years)
